This blog is dedicated to bringing World War II era documents to the general public, with an overall focus on armoured warfare.
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Friday, 28 February 2014

A whole year ago (give or take a few hours), I decided to transfer some of my more informative posts from the World of Tanks forums to a more permanent storage space. Blogspot seemed as good as any, and so, on February 28th, 2013, Archive Awareness was born. Since then, I have written 359 posts (346 of them actually containing documents), and received 387,261 page views (for an average of 1087 per day).

Not surprisingly, the blog was most frequently visited by readers from the United States. However, other English-speaking countries did surprisingly poorly, with the UK in fourth place, Canada in fifth place and Australia in seventh place. Germany (second), Poland (third) and Finland (sixth) apparently have enough English-speaking tank enthusiasts to overtake them. Despite dropping in and out of the top 10 and some temporary complications, Russia is now a solid #8 on the list. South Korea and the Netherlands follow in 9th and 10th respectively.

Despite this blog being originally intended for a World of Tanks associated audience, I have received many visits from forums associated with other video games, such as Company of Heroes 2 and War Thunder (now that their ground forces beta is progressing). Aside from game related websites (most notably, FTR), much of my traffic now comes from general historical discussions on Tank-net, Reddit, Something Awful, and many other forums and resources.

A great thank you goes out to Yuri Pasholok, Andrei Ulanov, and Dmitriy Shein, as well as many posters from Tank-net and VIF2NE, and, of course, my readers. I couldn't have done this without you!

One of the most important tasks for British tank building pioneers was sufficient off-road performance for their "land ships". The "Small Willie" tank, built on the Holt tractor chassis, proved incapable of crossing terrain covered in shell craters, let alone wide trenches and ravines. In order for the vehicle to cross them, it needed to have a much longer track support surface.

This is when engineers decided to shape the tank like a parallelogram and wrap it around the top of the hull. This not only increased the length of the tank, but the height of traction, which let the tank cross very tall obstacles. This gave birth to "rhombus tanks", common for British tank builders for some time.

The first experimental "rhombus" was built, and a proving grounds was prepared for trials. In order to maintain secrecy, the military used the land of Lord Salbury's private golf course. All sorts of obstacles were constructed on it: trenches, craters, wire. Initial mobility trials proved promising.

The positive effect of good mobility was balanced by its downside: the rhombus-shaped tank had to mount its armament in sponsons, which removed the capability of a 360 degree firing arc.

The new tank had several nicknames: "Mother", "Centipede", "Wilson's vehicle". The most famous one became "Big Willie". It went into production under the index "Mark I". The tank was mass produced in two variants: with two cannons and a machinegun or just machineguns. Modifications with one cannon and many machineguns also existed.

One of the main opponents of tanks in British military circles was Field Marshall Kitchener. Demonstrations of the "Big Willie" in February of 1916 in Hatfield Park (close to London) went far to turn his opinion on what he called "useless toys". The first trials, on February 2nd, were attended by the Minister of Armament and future Prime Minister D. Lloyd-George. The vehicle impressed him, but the stubborn Kitchener was not fully convinced until the second trials, attended by King George V. The stunned monarch immediately approved the production of tanks, and the military issued an order for 100 units.

The main tank of the US Army after 1942 was the famous M4 Sherman. With all of its advantages, it was insufficiently effective when fighting German Tigers and Panthers. In order to solve this problem, the M26 Pershing tank was designed. Initially planned as a medium, it was reclassified as a heavy in late 1944, and served this way until the end of the war.

The Pershing was armed with a 90 mm M3 cannon based on an AA gun. This gun was approximately equivalent to the 88 mm gun on the Tiger tank. The M26 was also armed with 7.62 and 12.7 mm machineguns.

Compared to the M4, the M26 had much thicker armour. The front of the hull and turret was 102 mm thick, and the sides and rear were 51 mm thick. The tank was equipped with a 450 hp Ford GAA engine, letting it accelerate to 32 kph. Practical application of the tank revealed that the engine was insufficiently powerful, which was taken into account, and solved when designing the M46 Patton tank.

The first combat use of the M26 was on February 25th, 1945, in battle for the Ruhr river in the Netherlands. The first loss of a Pershing happened three days later, on February 28th, near Elsdorf. 310 Pershings were sent to Europe, 200 of which were used by the army.

I've covered Soviet production plans that were interrupted by the start of the war, so let's look at the opposite: German production plans that were interrupted by the war's end. This document was translated by someone rather distant from German military terminology, so some of it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Item number

Name

March

April

May

June

July

August

Monthly requirement

Note

365

Tiger II

45

50

65

70

80

80

500 more units planned after February
1st, 1945.

355

Panther

200

225

225

225

225

-

1341 more units planned after
February 1st, 1945, including 125 mountain Panthers.

356

Mountain Panther

25

25

25

25

25

351

PzIV

180

200

100

-

-

-

650 planned after February 1st, 1945.

355

StuG III

250

300

300

300

130

-

1480 units produced in total.

StuH 42

80

80

80

-

-

-

Only 274 StuH 42s are planned.

StuG IV

50

60

60

68

-

-

Production scaled back due to

bombing.

342

PzIV long (U)

180

200

200

200

150

150

150

150 tanks of this type per month in
the new economy plan.

PzV long (A)

-

-

-

-

-

-

No longer produced, production will
renew when the box (?) is produced for the long U.

Thursday, 27 February 2014

On February 26th, engineer A.A. Mikulin from the OAT technical bureau arrived at the factory, and began inspection of the air cooled 30-35 hp engine and transmission.

The device was in the final stage of assembly. All engine systems were examined, notes were made, and individual components were altered. The engine worked for 10 hours in total without load, from 1200 RPM to 2000 RPM. The engine then worked for 3 days straight with load. After that, the engine worked at 15-26 hp with breaks for 6 hours. During those last trials, the air temperature was 15 degrees on intake and 52 degrees on exhaust. Due to a lack of instruments, the factory could not measure the speed of air flow at various points. Use of oil and gasoline has not been measured. This does not allow for any judgement to be made regarding the engine's usage characteristics, or the possibility of increasing engine power without overheating the cylinders. As for the power reserve, the engine operated at 26 hp and 1800 RPM when the throttle was open to a third. The calculated 35 hp power is guaranteed.

Preliminary trials show that the engine, after longer general trials and removal of discovered defects, can enter service as a reliable and functional device.

After the factory trials, I consider it rational to stage longer trials at the NAMI automotive department, where all characteristics of the engine will be discovered, and optimal operating mode be found, as it is possible that the Sirokko cooler will work better at higher RPM.

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Earlier, I wrote about the three Soviet camouflage colours: green, yellow, and brown. However, Yuri Pasholok discovered a fourth that he describes as a "museum gray" that German tanks are often painted with.

"Instructions on the deforming paint scheme applied in factory conditions

The camouflage is painted on using mixed paints of the following colours at the viscosity of interior paint.

Green "gray-earth" colour #4K

Dark "brown" colour #6K

Khaki "yellow" colour #7K

General army 4BO khaki green paint

The distribution of coloured spots is done according to the attached diagrams.

The process of applying the paint is as follows:

Prepare the item for painting using the typical method at the factory. If putty is used, it must have anti-corrosive properties no worse than red ochre primer.

5% dessicant #64The primer is applied using the commonly used method at the factory, depending on equipment. After primer is applied, the item should be dried. If possible, dry in hot conditions at 80 degrees for 2 hours.

The first colour layer is applied with thick paints mixed with natural drying oil or Oksol drying oil in the following (approximate) ratios:

25 parts of oil by weight for 100 parts of colour #4K, produced experimentally at the Svobodniy Trud factory

40 parts of oil by weight for 100 parts of colour #6K, produced experimentally at the Svobodniy Trud factory

25 parts of oil by weight for 100 parts of colour #7K, produced experimentally at the Svobodniy Trud factory

For 4BO paint, produced with different oil contents at different factories, use 30-50 parts of oil by weight for 100 parts of paint.

Note: this consistency is for painting with a brush. If using an airbrush, dilute to necessary viscosity with white spirits.

The second colour layer is applied with thick paints mixed not with drying oil, but with white spirits or turpentine. While painting, continuously add the solvent to compensate for it evaporating, bringing the paint to initial viscosity.

After painting, the surface should be matte. When applied on the second layer, paint #6K is diluted with the same method as the first layer, using 40 parts of drying oils per 100 parts of paint by weight.

Deputy Chief of the Main Military Engineering Preparation Directorate of the Red Army GVIU, Lieutenant-Colonel [illegible]

Chief of the 4th Department of the UVIP GVIU, Major Badanin"

CAMD RF 38-11355-1

And now, a true rarity among black and white photocopies from the archives, colour samples! Keep in mind that the scanner may not replicate the tone of the paint exactly.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

"To deputy commander of the Armoured and Motorized Forces of the Red Army, Lieutenant-General of the Tank Forces, comrade Korobkov

According to your orders, in addition to the conclusions of the trial commission at factory #183, I report that:

As stated by the commission, the T-44 is superior to the T-34 in its main tactical-technical characteristics. However, the commission did not think it possible to recommend the tank for adoption until the removal of detected defects and subsequent re-trials.

In addition, in order to recommend the T-44, the commission thinks that it is necessary to perform gunnery trials in order to test some of its components, such as the driver's cupola, rear, and lower front plate, the design of which may be questionable from the point of view of shell resistance.

The commission may only make the recommendation for adoption of this tank after these trials.

I talked about penetration tablesmanytimesbefore, but there is always something fresh to be discovered. Here is yet another table from Yuri Pasholok. The data in the table contains some obvious typos, which I corrected in my table. Regrettably, all but a handful of these guns are unknown to me, so the names may not be entirely correct.

The above table shows that various gun calibers are used in anti-tank roles, from 20 mm to 75 mm. The main caliber of this time is 37 mm, but, as seen in the table, it does not effectively solve the task it is given. [illegible] are gradually receding, and calibers around 45 mm are becoming popular. As can be seen from the table, the 47 mm Bofors gun more or achieves its goals. Its appearance led to a lot of talk in military technical literature. Many of the guns in the above table are automatic, capable of firing not only at ground targets, but air targets, if installed in special mounts."

A particularly notable gun in this list is the Vickers 47 mm. This gun was installed in the Vickers 6-ton Type B (single turret). As you can see, its armour-piercing effect was quite potent, especially considering the thin armour of the tank itself.

The note about anti-tank guns reaching calibers of 75 mm isn't quite true. The guns with slashes in their names are bicaliber. A replacement barrel allows the use of two calibers in the same gun system, with minimal changes. The actual caliber of the fired shell would be the second one, in the cases of the above table, 37-47 mm.